Mobile devices are often used by users, particularly while driving, to place emergency calls for medical help, police or personal contacts due to the occurrence of a vehicle accident. If the nature of the accident, however, is such that the driver is incapacitated or unable to dial for help for any reason, no emergency help can be readily dispatched. Consequently, modern day accident detection systems utilize various sensors to detect airbag deployment, structural deformity of the vehicle and other physical triggers to determine the occurrence of accidents for enabling automatic notification of emergency responders. To take full advantage of these systems, the vehicle must be configured with specialized hardware and user control equipment. Unfortunately, there is no convenient means of configuring a vehicle with an accident detection system without requiring installation or specific configuration of the vehicle. Moreover, if the user is a passenger in a vehicle not owned by the user, such as bus, taxi, or even a friend's car, the user may be vulnerable in an emergency situation if the vehicle was not properly configured.
Therefore, there is a need for an approach to provide emergency notification with greater convenience for users in various different contexts.